Modern industrial vehicles such as diesel trucks and the like are complex and sophisticated machines that include a multitude of systems and subsystems that control the function and behavior of the vehicle. While certain systems and subsystems function autonomously when the vehicle is running, certain other systems must be subject to the control of the vehicle's operator. For example, the operator of a truck must be able to quickly and easily control the turn signals, the lights, and the hand brake valve, in addition to being able to accurately and safely steer the truck.
For some time, manufacturers of trucks and other vehicles have mounted the controls for certain vehicle subsystems, such as the exterior lights, on the steering column where such controls are easily accessible to the operator of the vehicle. Because each of the controls mounted on the steering column is most often designed and manufactured independently of the other controls, each control typically has unique physical characteristics and structure. To accommodate the various geometries of the control devices, steering columns are typically manufactured with a prefabricated interface upon which the control devices are mounted. While effective at providing the necessary mounting surface, the adapter or interface adds considerable structural complexity to the steering column itself. Such complex structures are expensive to design and manufacture and cannot easily be modified to allow certain control devices to be replaced or exchanged for different devices.
Furthermore, if the owner or operator of a vehicle wishes to change the steering column itself from a tilting steering column to a fixed, non-tilting steering column, for example, relocating the various control devices to the new steering column will be very difficult unless the new column has been manufactured to include an adapter compatible with the original configuration and characteristics of the control devices. Engineering or reengineering a steering column to have a specific or unique set of characteristics is impractical and expensive, especially when the final configuration of required control devices may not be known until assembly of the truck is nearly complete. If changes must be made late in the assembly process, a steering column with the wrong set of device mounting surfaces may be unusable. Thus, there is a need for an adapter that (i) provides a common interface for a variety of devices, (ii) can easily be removed from one steering column and placed onto another steering column without changing the physical structure of the column; and (iii) can be modified for use with a variety of system devices or other items where each device or item has different physical characteristics.